[comp.unix.sysv386] Problems with Xserver Xv256 and STB Power Graph board

nbladt@aut.autelca.ascom.ch (Norbert Bladt) (02/01/91)

Hello !

After "solving" our problem with the 386 33-Mhz motherboard
(ISC 2.2 wouldn't boot on it - we changed it against a 486 motherboard
and it works) we are running in a problem again. However, this time it
is rather an annoying "feature" than a big problem.

We bought the STB Power Graph board and an EIZO (Nanao) 9070-S monitor.
(16-inch 1024x768 non-interlaced). All the normal VGA modes are working
well. However, if we are using the Xserver which came with our
ISC 2.2 (Interactive UNIX), black (on white background) or white
(on black background) are remaining on the screen, whenever we move
the window.
If we use a program, e.g., xhpgl, and we request to redraw the window,
these pixel will go away.

What is the problem ?

If that is a problem with the board we will send it back immediately.
We have other problems with our dealer in Switzerland.
We got the board at the beginning of Dec. 1990 without MANUAL and
driver disk. I requested that from the dealer on 14-Dec-1990 and again
on 23-Jan-1991. Although, he said "we will ship it immediately", nothing
arrived, yet.
I called again today (1-Feb-91) and he said I will get a COPY OF THE
MANUAL ?
Are they short in manuals ???

Now, that we have a DOS partition on our system, we want to use Windows 3.0
with that board but can't use the higher resolution modes :-(
Even some other DOS program like Cshow, Vpic, etc. which have drivers
for the Tseng Labs ET-4000 chipset (and even for the STB 4000)
don't work with this board in the 256 colour modes (no, not even 320x200 !).

Thank you for your help,

Norbert Bladt.
-- 
Norbert Bladt, Ascom Autelca AG, Worbstr. 201, CH-3073 Guemligen, Switzerland
Phone: +41 31 52 92 14
Mail: nbladt@autelca.ascom.ch  UUCP: ..!uunet!mcsun!chx400!hslrswi!aut!nbladt

mark@brandy.UUCP (mark hilliard) (02/02/91)

In article <1343@aut.autelca.ascom.ch> nbladt@aut.UUCP (Norbert Bladt) writes:
>Hello !
>
>We bought the STB Power Graph board and an EIZO (Nanao) 9070-S monitor.
>If we use a program, e.g., xhpgl, and we request to redraw the window,
>these pixel will go away.
>
>What is the problem ?

We had the same problem here.  As it turned out the cause was ANOTHER board
in the system causing interference with the POWERGRAPH.  In our case it
was a HAYES JT Fax board.  No matter how we set it up, we would end up 
with random pixels on our X11 root.  We ended up replaceing the fax board
with another companies version and all problems stopped.  This happened 
with 3 seperate systems.  I feel that there is some questionably designed
circuits on the STB board that picked up noise from the fax board.  We
would have replaced the STB, but there is really no other VGA adapter
for ISC (in the VGA relm) that gives 1024x768x256 for a affordable price.

We eventually replaced all of the VGA boards with MFG (Microfield) V8
boards (1024x1280x256 out of 4096), but this is WAY out of the relm of
the casual home or small business user.